Big Brothaz of Destruction podcast

The Last time is now. John Cena Retires

• Itsthemazoku and SwagSwitcha • Season 1 • Episode 41

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The bell rang for a legend, and the building held its breath. We walked into Saturday Night’s Main Event craving story, stakes, and a goodbye that felt like John Cena—big, bold, and unapologetically crowd-first. What we got instead was a card of quick flashes, a few bright sparks from rising names, and an ending that split the room: Cena tapping to Gunther after two decades of “never give up.”

We unpack why that moment landed wrong for so many and how the path there made it worse. The heel turn that promised chaos fizzled when the surrounding star power vanished, dragging the tour’s narrative into limbo. Imagine a greatest-hits gauntlet with AJ, Orton, and even a one-night-only Edge—high drama built on history and respect. We talk through those missed rivalries, the “Last Time Is Now” tournament that felt like ceremony without soul, and the booking philosophy that chose shock over sentiment.

It wasn’t all misfires. Sol Ruca delivered a breakout showcase against Bayley, blending precision acrobatics with poise; Oba Femi’s aura against Cody teased a future pillar despite clunky timing and a run-in finish; and the Young OGs shared a fast, fearless spotlight with AJ Styles and Dragon Lee. Still, the night’s heartbeat was a farewell. A final AA celebration could have honored the myth and still elevated the future the next night. Instead, the final image was a smile, a tap, and a fanbase booing the decision-makers, not the performers.

If you care about wrestling storytelling, legacy, and how to pass the torch without dimming the lights, this one matters. Press play, ride with us through the highs and lows, and tell us how you would have booked Cena’s last bell. If the conversation hits, subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review so more wrestling fans find the show.

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SPEAKER_00:

Fucking unar what the fuck is this John Cena's final match? Your greatest fucking rival and you're not even there.

SPEAKER_01:

Fuck is you doing welcome to another episode of the Big Brothers of Destruction podcast. It's the Masaku, the demon that leaves your girl screaming at all times. But unfortunately, Swag Switch is not in the building. My man's not feeling too well. Funny enough, uh, he actually came over here for the last episode, recorded, and then like the next day, he got like really sick. And he's been like sick for the past couple of days, still been working, and then finally went to an urgent care, got him some meds. He's starting to feel a little bit better, but he was like, Hey man, you think you can run the pod by yourself or maybe get a guest in time? And I was like, last minute? Probably not, but hey, the show must go on. And as we run our episodes at our usual time on Mondays, if not Tuesdays, I I still feel the need to talk about the pay-per-view that just happened not too long ago, and that's Saturday night's main event. Man, when I tell you, I'm a little cross about this, right? As every wrestling fan has been talking about it, John Cena's final match has been a little bit of a bomb. Okay, a little bit of a bomb. It has caused people to riot, it's caused people to have mixed feelings. And I'm gonna go over the entirety, the entirety of the pay-per-view and give you my feelings and my thoughts about it. But before we do that, I want to also talk about retirements in 2025. And you know, there's been a lot. There's been a lot, and it's been really hard as a wrestling fan because yes, some of these people, you've been growing up watching them, and as you're getting older, you're realizing they're also getting older, and they can't keep doing this forever. So when John Cena told us earlier this year, or I believe it was last year, this was be his retirement tour, and he was trying to actually do more than 36 dates. But WWE apparently said, No, we only want to book you for this many dates because you know it kind of F's up our uh storylines, I believe. I don't know what Hunter's you know idea behind that was, but to me it was stupid. The man wanted to go, let him go. It's his retirement, right? And we've got other people who are retiring this year, which is Tanahashi, Hiro Tanahashi, and um the ace himself is doing his retirement uh he's doing his retirement tour, and he's he's wrestling every night. He's wrestling, he's wrestling every night. And I don't get how he can do that, but Cena could I don't know. Japanese John Cena, go ace, go ace. Um he's having his retirement. Uh JDC is having his retirement. Uh who else is also retiring? There's been a there's been a lot of people who have been retiring this year. And I feel like with John Cena's I I gotta admit it, after watching this pay-per-view, it is a flop. And it's also still done in a justifiable way, I guess. I don't it's it's a real hard pill to swallow. It's a really hard pill to swallow because you're talking about a man who never gave up, who was always about hustle, loyalty, and respect. And a lot of that wasn't shown during this Farewell tour. It came near at the end, but not a lot of it is in the Fairwell tour. And and to give you more understanding, if it's your first time watching, if you've been under a rock, which I doubt you are, because if you're watching this, you obviously are more of a uh IWC type person. You probably saw the thumbnail and said, Let me hear this guy's opinion. So, really quick, let's just talk about how we got to this point with John Cena's retirement, right? How we got to this match. So, John Cena returns and says, Hey man, I'm going to do a retirement tour and I got this many dates, right? He joins the Royal Rumble, doesn't win. Jey Uso wins. And he says, All right, cool. Well then let me do the elimination chamber. Maybe I can win that. Oh, doesn't win that. Okay. Now, because he doesn't win that, oh actually, no, he won the elimination chamber. Excuse me. He won the elimination chamber, and this is when The Rock and Travis Scott get involved because The Rock has been trying to get Cody to sell his soul. But then all of a sudden, John Cedar does a heel turn. A heel turn that at the time I saw, I thought it was the greatest thing ever. I thought it was amazing. I thought it was what wrestling needed at the time, right? We've been dying to see him do a heel turn. It's his last run. Let's go with it. Let's see what happens, right? Boy, was I wrong. I mean, we got a good couple of promos, but like, no good wrestling. No, nothing good came from it because once the heel turn happened, oh, The Rock and technically Travis Scott were out. They were like, oh, well, we we did our part, you know. The Rock personally said, Oh, I sold enough tickets for Survivor Series, uh not Survivor Series, uh, for the Elimination Chamber, and people got to come. So I did my part. You don't need The Rock anymore. And that really hurt that story. Because now, as we thought Cena sold his soul, well, what did he sell his soul for? Only to find out he was like, Oh, I'm just I'm ending my relationship with the fans, I'm ending my relationship, and it went on with that for a while. Then he did a cool thing where he was wearing the belt on the back, like he was wearing it backwards instead of frontwards. You know, you got to do creative like things like that with the title to make it unique. But he was going with the moniker that he was gonna be the last real champion, last real champion, and a lot of people took a took a lot of gripe with that, especially once he lost the belt. But we didn't get to that part yet. So he has the title after he beats Cody at WrestleMania, and Travis Scott comes out because there's no rock. John Cena goes on a run and defends the title against a couple of people. R-Truth, uh I believe was Drew McIntyre. I don't think Drew McIntyre was one of them. Um tells you how memorable this fucking tour was. But we know it was Cody Rose, we know it was Logan, Logan Paul and him teamed up. There's a couple of matches in general that we just we really didn't need. Because what we wanted was we wanted to understand the story of why he turned it, why he turned heel. We never got that. So we kept getting these matches that we really didn't care about. Cena versus Cody won, him versus our truth. You know, we did get one match that I liked, which was the him winning the IC title versus uh Dominic Mysterio, but we haven't got there yet. We got a couple of title defenses from Cena, very lackluster, because they all ended the same way, which was him using the belt, slapping somebody in the face with the belt. And then finally, we get a rematch with Cody and Cena where he loses the belt. But before the match happens, he actually turns face again because the heel turn at this point was really, really bad. It was really bad. You know, Orton tried to go against some cody, he was going against some again, R-Truth, so many different names, and nobody was able to take the belt off of him. Honestly, at one point I was kind of excited because I was like, okay, are we doing like a the summer of punk situation where Cena's holding the belt until he retires, and you have retired, you have to retire the title and then make a new belt. I I kind of wanted that. I don't know why. I I felt like that would be very interesting. Where as swag, he kept telling me, bro, like none of it makes sense, that doesn't make sense. Why would we do that? Why would we do this? And a part of me was just like, man, I'm just here for the ride. Like, tell me, give me something, okay? Give me something to be hyped or excited about because this this heel turn is not it, broski, it's not it. So as we continue on with this journey, after Cena loses the belt to Cody, we get very interesting matches. I say out of the bunch, the the Dominic Mysterio and the AJ Style one. The AJ Style one was, I think, the best match out of this run, mainly because it did what Cena was supposed to be doing during this one. It's playing back the greatest hits and going against opponents that were some of his best rivalries. I mean, yeah, him and Orton makes sense. Him and AJ makes sense. How the hell did we get a uh a Cena versus the Miz? Why didn't we get you know Cena versus Dolph Ziggler? You know, just legendary rivalries, you know what I'm saying? And like the people are there, you can you can make it happen, but you know, for oh yeah, Matt Cardona. Well, technically Zach Ryder, but just a lot of stuff, and they didn't do it. And come to find out, Triple H didn't even think about hitting up Tony Khan and say, hey, can we borrow Edge for like a day or two? Like, Tony Khan understands Cena, he understands what he is for the business, and was like, they never even asked. If they probably would have asked, I probably would have been down because it's Cena. He said in an Articleani fucking interview, he said, Yo, if Cena really wanted Edge, I I maybe in the negotiated something. Probably wouldn't have been that bad, probably wouldn't have been that hard. But the ego that is WWE for some reason just I guess was like, well, I guess Edge, he went to the other side, so fuck him, I guess. But then, which is weird because I thought Mark Hamry is also AEW, but he was at the pay-per-view, or maybe he's not working for AEW anymore. I don't know that somebody tell me in the comments, but so as we we get down to these matches that Cena's having, we get to the end where it is the last time is now tournament, which to me is the dumbest concept, and it took swag switching explaining it, bro. It was like, all right, so you telling me this is a tournament to fight a guy in his final match, right? What do you gain from it? What is the the huge value outside of going against Cena in his last match? Yes, that is an honor, that is a privilege, that's a thing, but like a lot of the people that were in the tournament were people who are almost out the door themselves. Give this opportunity to a new talent, right? And Gunther, Gunther's been in the ring, he's been in the industry for 15 years. He doesn't he doesn't need this right now, except the angle that they're trying to pull on Gunther is him being the legend killer. And how are you gonna do that when you still got the legend killer in the roster? I don't know. But we got this last time is now tournament for people to become Cena's final opponent. And we kind of were already spoiled about this. If you're in the IWC, you was probably spoiled about this a little bit too early, but we all knew it was gonna be Gunther, right? We all knew it was gonna be Gunther, but we kind of hoped maybe something would happen. And you know, Hunter has this thing where he doesn't like it when the audience knows the booking, and he'll flip it just to fuck with us, right? But I think he might have taken this quote from uh George R. Martin, where he was like, Well, if you've been making the book, if you've been making a book and or story, and you know that the butler is the person who committed the crime or did the thing, you've been writing the story based on that, and then your audience is reading it over the internet, talking about it, conversing over the internet about it, and they have already found out that before the next book comes out or the next story comes out, that the butler did it, but you said, Ah, I don't like the fact that they know that. I'm gonna flip the script on them and make it the janitor. It you mess up the whole story. And I believe that Hunter probably took that advice of like, hey, we planned this. It's gonna be Gunther no matter what, it was gonna be Gunther. So the tournament happens. We had a moment where it was like, oh shit, maybe it might be LA Night because the fans have been rallying for LA Night. I feel like, man, LA Knight versus Cena would have been a way better match. Granted, again, LA Knight, he kind of hitting it on the age gap, too. I think he's like 41. So again, not another talent who is fresh in the game. It's somebody who got some mileage on him, right? So for Gunther to be the opponent, we all knew it was gonna happen. It's Gunther. You put him in the ring with somebody, he's going to destroy them. Except Jey Uso. Apparently he's gonna tap out to him, which that to me, that still has tarnished his his reputation as a heel because he can't go anywhere without hearing the phrase you tapped out. Because it's like no matter how threatening or menacing you are, you tapped out. You, you tapped out, you did that. So, because Cena's dates are now limited to only two at this point, and I believe his last one was used before the actual pay-per-view. I don't think he was part of any promotion of it at all, besides his appearance in the NXT uh deadline series, where he was talking about the five he picked for the deadline match, and to find out who's the Iron Survivor and everything. But no connection to Gunther. He had no interview with Gunther, he had no promo against Gunther. It's just Gunther just knew, hey, I'm gonna go against Cena and this one I'm gonna do to him. So I would say the coolest thing that Cena has done during this process is yes, for Saturday night's main event, we have upcoming talent going against the now. Alright. And the first match that they made or booked was Oba Femi versus Cody freaking rose. And that right there, that that had me hooked. I was in for it. And I said, hey, if you're gonna do it, Oba, I mean Uba has to win. Oba Femi has to win. And anybody that's watching the product knows that he had to win. It couldn't have been any other way. There shouldn't have been any other way. He has to win that match. And if he doesn't, we have a problem, right? And I think WWE knew that. Yeah, we can't book him to lose that match. We can't book Cody to lose that match either. And I called it last uh recording. I said, hey man, he has to win that match. But here's the thing some shenanigans have to happen to prevent the booking of this match, similar to how they did with EO versus uh Stephanie Valkyrie. They had to do this. Oh, we're gonna give you a little bit of the match, and then we're gonna have an interference that causes it, just so you can like I really want this. You almost gave it to me. I really want it, and they did that same shit in this fucking match. So how does this match go, man? Uber comes out to the no, it's Cody comes out first, and then Uber comes out next. And Uber Femi looks like a freaking he he just looks like a monster, man. He looks like the destroyer, he looks like the ruler, and when he hears the pose, bro, I was like, oh man, this is it. I think Hunter's gonna pull the trigger and give him this win. And as we go into the match, a lot of good's happening, man. Oba is getting good offense in, he's showing his power. Cody's giving that good baby face, you know, emotion and drive, and oba is getting most of the offense, and it looks good, it looks good, but you obviously know with moments like this, if the heels getting most of the offense in, which technically, uh is in that gray area, like Swag said. He's not a heel, he's not a face, he's just a guy, he's the ruler, right? So, but in this situation, he looks like a heel. He could he is whatever you need him to be in the moment, right? That is the the the aura of the ruler, right? He could be a face, he could be a heel. So as he's getting this offense in, you know, and they spill outside the ring. Matter of fact, before we kind of get into that, I I was I was noticing the chemistry was off with these two. I don't know if this is their first time actually touching the ring. I don't, I don't know if they had a conversation beforehand, like, hey, I want to do this, I want to do that. Like, it just felt like a lot of times Cody would like either not be in place in time, and Uber Femi would be like, okay, perfect example. Say it's about to be like a clothesline, and I should be ducking for the clothesline, but like Cody's reaction would be like 10 times slower, so as Uber's boundary. Bouncing off the ropes. Now, no, this is a hypothetical. Uber will be bouncing off the ropes, and by the time Uber's arm is about to hit you, he suddenly just ducks, like really late. But he's the duck like eons ago. And that was Cody the entire match. Cody to me, either he fell off, or was he worried that Uber was a younger guy and new to the ring with him. I don't know, but a lot of that match, man, the chemistry was off. The chemistry was just not there. I was not liking it. It looked like it was gonna be a lot of rookie mistakes. And I know, and we don't need to have uh Uba looks like he has a lot of rookie mistakes. There was a time where I think he did a power slam, and he was trying to go for the pen, but like Cody was selling it, but Cody was like moving in a way that Uber couldn't pin him, so the pen looked awkward. It was just like a lot of awkward moments. Even my wife, she's watching, and she's like, Do they ever rehearse this beforehand? Because this don't look rehearsed. And I was like, uh, babe, don't really rehearse the matches like that. That used to be an old thing a lot of times. Some people do rehearse matches, some people do, some people just go off the cuff. Some people like, all right, man, I'm gonna do this, do that. Boom, boom, bam. Here's the spot. Beforehand, we just do whatever, right? This definitely looked like they didn't prepare for this, and that's just my feeling. That's even from my wife's feeling. And while she is a a person who watches wrestling, she can watch it, understand the chemistry. She's not as super active as I am in it. But she, as a person who's watched wrestling well enough, could tell you something was off in that match. Something was off. So as we get close to the end, excuse me, I take water. Um, there's a part where they both spill outside the ring, and Cody, for some reason, he's sitting on the table. As if he's like, hey yo, here is the spot. And yes, he takes the advantage of the spot, hits him with a I believe that would be uh hits him with the forearm. I think it was a forearm, and it causes Cody to bleed in his ear. The hit, the rushing forearm, or rushing shoulder. Looks like he might have hit Cody in the ear, made Cody bleed. As we get back in the ring, which by the way, this also pissed me off. The ref wasn't even counting the whole freaking time, bro. I don't know what's going on with the refs nowadays, they just not counting. I know that's a nitpicky thing, but refs not counting, just telling me that okay, these are really just spots, you're not doing your job. You're not doing your job. It even happens in the John Cena match. You're not doing your job, you're not counting. You are not counting. So we get back in the ring. Cody's starting to pick up his offense, he gets on top of Uba and starts doing a little bit of a ground pound. And then fucking Drew McIntyre comes out of nowhere, and I was just like, fucking called it. Like any wrestling fan can call this shit. This was not about to be a straight clean finish. You weren't about to get it. You were not going to get it. Okay. And that's the unfortunate side. You were not about to get that. And so at the end of this, as Drew interferes, Uber and Cody both start throwing offense on. Right? Gets Drew out there, Drew takes powder, he's gone. And then Cody and Femi, they both raise the belts. Kind of in a uh a show of respect. But in all reality, it was a waste of time. It was it was a nice little look. It was nice to see him in the ring with somebody like Cody. But like, if you're not gonna go. To me, this is how I am as a fan. If you're not willing to pull the trigger on giving me a dub or something, don't even do it. Don't do it. I don't want to see it. Because you you playing with me, you playing with me at this point, and no, there's only four matches in this pay-per-view. Four. And you know what? WWE also kept wanting to let you know. Hey, there's three matches left until John Cena's final match. Hey, there's two matches left before John Cena's match. Hey, that's one more. It was so annoying. Like we know the card. We know the card. There's nobody, there's no way else that nobody else doesn't know the card because you kept telling us the card in the beginning of the show and throughout the show. So why do you have to put up a prompt to let us know how many matches until John Cena's match? Did you think your audience is gonna walk away? Because I don't know the card wasn't that exciting to them. Then maybe that's your fault, WWE. I don't know. So we get to the second match, and at first, I was very optim uh, I was very against this match. Because at the time, I I I still don't know too much about her, but at the time I didn't know too much about Sol Ruka. I didn't know too much about her besides that she lost her titles because of an injury and had her partner defend said title and lose it. Uh speaking of which, uh that same partner was outside there with her and during this match, too. So a lot of interesting uh stories at play. But Soluku versus Bailey. And to me, I was like, why is Bailey in this match? Yes, Bailey is the now, but like she's not that popular currently to me. She's always gonna be a phenomenal person, she's a phenomenal athlete, but in the current women's roster, she's not moving the needle like a Rhea Ripley, like uh a Stephanie Valkyrie, which that also didn't make sense to me. They are just saying that Stephanie Valkyrie is the future. Why is she not in a match with one of the people from the now, right? Why is she not in a match with those people? So is is Stephanie Valkyrie the now? Y'all telling me she's the future, and this is supposed to be the future versus the now. I'm just saying that was a little nitpicky in me, just a little nitpicky. But I I was I was I was stunned and flabbergasted. I'm gonna shut the fuck up when it comes to Soul Ruka, because boy, that girl can go. That girl can go, and everybody's been talking about her move to Soul Snatcher, and I've seen it, I'm aware of it. But it took this match with Bailey to see, oh, outside of getting into wrestling, she was once before she was in acrobatics, and she actually wanted to be a stunt double. She was like, hey man, this is the only thing else I could do. And then somehow she got into wrestling, and all those skills of acrobatics and gymnastics and all that kind of stuff really plays a role into her wrestling style. So when we're seeing these cartwheels, we're seeing these backflips, we're seeing these handstands, we're seeing all these things. There's a point where I forget the move. It's a heel toe uh spin move where she reversed Bailey, goes on her hands, backs up, grabs her by the head with her feet, and then does the spin. I it heel toes, I want to say heeltoe spin, something like that. But you can see her acrobatics, and you can see her control. It's so her control and what she does is so good, right? So good. And I could give Bailey this credit. Bailey was a good opponent for her, but I still feel like you know, the decision behind this, and this might be a little controversial. I feel like the decision behind this came because John Cena came to her training thing and was there for eight hours, right? And maybe they might be cool friends outside of this too, but like I feel like there's so many more people, and plus Bailey, there's so many other people that could have been the now person because Bailey hasn't really been on TV doing anything for the last couple of weeks. It's literally been the uh uh uh uh the Rhea EO show, the the freaking kabuki warriors, and we also have the best, the not best friends. Like, even judgment day people are having so much more stuff going on. Bailey hasn't been doing anything, and you chose her. I I was confused. I was confused, and then two, I thought the whole dynamic of wrestling is always supposed to be good versus evil. Bailey's character is not even technically evil right now, she's not even a heel, she's going through a crisis, uh, a psychological crisis, and nothing heelish is happening. Plus, she has Valkyrie with her, which Valkyrie is supposed to be a face. So, like, make it make sense to me. I don't know, but natural's good. I'll give it credit where credit is due. The ladies did do good, ladies did great. Um, a lot of people are uh really iffy on the finish. I'll tell you how I feel about the finish. As Soluka is she's doing all her acrobats and showing off those skills. She goes for a Soul Snatcher, it gets reversed, and Bailey does a rosebud, and that's her signature, by the way. Bailey's signature, and she goes for the one, two, kicks out at two, and there's a sequence that begins, and then somehow in that sequence Soul Ruka hits her with the Soul Snatcher, and that shit was clean. Clean. Goes for the pin one, two, kick out, roll reverse, Bailey on top, going for the pin, one, two, roll reverse, one, two, three, boom. So Ruka wins. Now, it kind of felt like you should have just let her win with the move because the crowd is already hype. Like, imagine this is the meter, and this is the highest the meter can get, right? As Soulka hits her with the soul snatcher, the meter is here. The minute you get the reverse pin, it was like, oh, you know, the crowd is there, but the crowd would have been there so much if you hit the soul snatcher, and then one, two, three, the crowd would have popped for that. It would have been a good moment. But the roll pin, ah. Nah, that ain't it, y'all. I mean, the right person won. I do believe so. Ruka should have won. But that's just me. Congratulations to both women. It's a great match. I would definitely say second contender for best match of the night. They all give their salute to John Cena. We rolled to the commercials. By the way, how did y'all feel about these commercials? There were so many fucking commercials during this damn thing. So many commercials. Ridiculous. Going into the third match. By the way, since you know WWE keeps reminding you, there's two matches left until John Cena's final match. And boy, was I super excited about this third match. I was so excited. We got AJ Styles and Dragon League versus the young OGs. Javon Evans and Leon Slater. This match alone, as me and as me and Swag were watching the pay-per-view, we're talking to each other, we're messaging each other, we're voicing our opinions about everything. And there was a point where I didn't mention, I said, I don't like how there's no build to any of these matches. And Swag said, yo, I guess you might not just you might as well not even watch this pay-per-view because none of them have build. None of them have anything. They are simply just name alone. Name alone is what draws these match matches. And I'll admit that tag match was the match that drew me in. I said WWE is gonna get the chance to see Javon Evans and Leon Slater in the ring going bananza. Going bananas, going crazy, going insane in the ring. And they didn't disappoint because as the match started, the boys immediately attacked both AJ and Dragon Lee, hitting them with offense, both hitting with super kicks. And I remember this match step by step. Hitting them both with super kicks. Javon gets out uh Javon gets AJ and Dragon Lee by hitting a springboard, jumps off uh jumps outside the ring, Tope, Cena, whatever you want to call it, jumps over, hits both of them, and then as Dragon Lee moves to the right, moves away, Leon does his specific spot where he likes jumping over the turnbuckle outside the ring. And I love that spot, but it was crazy how you did it in the beginning of the match. The beginning of the match. Crazy. So we get both of them hitting her outside the ring moves. They bring dragon in the ring, they hit him with a couple of more moves, and then they both hit what seems like a a group signature, and you get a one, two, and a kick out. And people are saying, and this is me, the young OG should have won. Right? And we're not done with the match yet. But at that point, you couldn't really do that because you kind of hurt AJ and Dragon as champions. Because if they get knocked out by a couple small offense like that, what does that say about their credibility as tag champs? But as the match continues on, AJ and Dragon Lee pick things back up. There's a point where Dragon Lee takes out Javon Evans, and it's just AJ Styles and Leon Slater in the ring. The X Division champion, by the way. Knowing AJ Styles' history in the X Division, if you do not book this match during their retirement tour, unfortunately, AJ Styles will not be able to go the way he did. But could you imagine a young AJ Styles versus a Leon Slater? Ooh. Comment section, please tell me your thoughts. Please tell me your thoughts. How would you feel if you got to see 2010 AJ Styles versus Leon Slater now? That would be an insane match. Him versus even Javon. Evan sounds crazy, right? But we get this right now in real time. And as the match still goes on, there is a part where the spot doesn't make sense. Leon doesn't even do a move like this. He gets on the top rope. Looks like he's going for a jumping drop kick, but no, AJ reverses it. He hits his back, puts him into the stock clash. One, two, three. Very short match, and I'm really upset about that. The match, I think, was no more than 10 minutes. It was really quick. It was that moment of the quick offense. Switch it up, they're back in the ring. It's Leon and AJ. Reverse pin. That was it. And I wanted more. I really wanted more. I wanted more because I feel like they could, it could have been a real bar burner. Real barburner, real slobberdocker, if you want to call it. But no. But also, we only got one for Vatch until John Cena's uh retirement. And when the next one is just that. It's the retirement. But great job, Javon Evans. And also, Leon Slater, you know, congrats to you. You had a tough decision this weekend, too. And for those who do not know, in the IWC, Leon Slater was booked for another event that was ah, they were building a story off of him being in a triple threat match for a title. And as John Cena's final match came up, WWE said, Hey, we have an opportunity to having you team up with Javon Evans in John Cena's final match pay-per-view. Right? In Saturday's main event. And granted, he already had obligations. He already had bookings with this place. They've been making a story for him and doing all this stuff. So technically, he is still obligated to do that booking. But the booker said, hey, yo, it's fucking John Cena. You're in front of WWE, all eyes are on you right now. We cannot get mad at you for not going there. And so I believe, with their blessing, they dropped him from the card. And he was able to go out there to do that match. Which again, it's fucking John Cena's final match. It's Saturday night's main event. And granted, the promotion is in your home country. Who am I to tell you you made you didn't make the right decision? You made the right decision. It's unfortunate it was a decision that may have hurt potentially the company. I don't think it would have hurt them that much. It's a story that, yeah, maybe you could brought him back in or something like that. But it's fucking John Cena, bro. What what do you want to do? Okay. So oh boy, this match. Um let me let me tell y'all what I was feeling when this match was starting to happen. I was saying this months ago. Well, it was months ago where I said, man, when we finally get to that John Cena match, my nigga, I might cry. I might cry at the end of it. Because it's it's finally removing a chapter of my life that I probably won't see Cena in the ring again. And I remember during the fellow the farewell tour, I wanted to make sure I can go into one more arena where I could finally hear that damn theme song again. But WWE's tickets were making it very difficult. So as I went into this match and said, Alright, miss the last time I'm a C Cena. And you know what WWE could do to maybe fix this shit. You fix this. Have John go out first. Right? So that way he could look down Gunther as Gunther comes to the ring. So he can see his final opponent. But oh! But wait, backstage. You suddenly see Gunther is locked in a room. He can't get out of his locker room. It it's but it's like booby trapped or something like that. Like a chair is in a way, and nobody can get it off, right? Or it's it's locked with the chair, but nobody sees it but the cameraman, right? And then Cena's looking at the the screen like well because somebody all of a sudden you hear you think you know me. And it is this edge coming out to the fucking ring, and the whole building would explode. Okay, the whole building. I think the roof would come off that bitch. If Edge would have came out there and truly been his final opponent, because Edge is the one that took so much from Cena. Cena, New Year's resolution, winning an elimination chamber match, and for Edge to go out there and be the first person to cash in on somebody, and no, he's cashed in on his ass multiple times. Okay, who better to go against an edge? And yes, some people be saying, yo, the tournament would have been for nothing. Hey, look, it's fucking Edge versus Cena. Would you have complained about that match? I don't think so. I think you'd have been there for the ride. I think you'd have been perfectly satisfied to see Edge come out there than Gunther. I think you'd have been extremely happy. And I think, I think Cena, if they never told Cena, like imagine Cena's face as he's looking at the screen, like, what the fuck? And all of a sudden, you think you know me. And you see Cena go like, could you could you just imagine? He would even be shocked. He even would be shocked. And for them to just go and just hearing the crowd, I'm telling you, that that bullshit ass noise meter they be popping up, the roof, it would have had to be in a stadium because that roof would have came off. I'm trying to tell you. The roof would have been gone. But unfortunately, we didn't get that. But what we got was Gumpha came out first. So once I saw that, I said, Oh, okay. I guess we're not gonna get that. A man can wish, man could dream. And then John Cena comes out there. And then John Cena's entry was really uh John really felt John really did give a heartfelt feeling. The man didn't cry, the man didn't have no emotion, the man was just John. And you would think maybe maybe a little bit of emotion would come out of John in this moment. And no, he grabs the camera, he wants to get Stu. I thought he was gonna have Stu run to the ring and he hold the camera. I I was I'm just again at this point as a wrestling fan. I'm just hoping for fun shit. It's the final match, okay? I'm hoping for fun shit. I'm hoping for fun shit where he says, Yo, Stu, you're seeing it right now, okay? Run down to the ring, go in there and then throw the hat and do the now, do this. That'll be a fun moment, okay? I'm sorry, I know it's stupid, maybe. But a guy can dream, right? You want something fun to happen out of this because the match itself, Gunther, and seeing it on paper in any other scenario would be a good match. But because you know this is the final match, this is the last time you will see Cena in that ring. I didn't want it to be it. I did not want that match to be it. So going into it, I was just like, man, let's just get this over with. Let's get this over with because you were not gonna tell me a story, and at first they started telling us a story. Cena comes in, he he's not really used to Gunther's offense, but also you could tell the age that Cena, Cena's already checked out these 30, I think it was 36 days. He was already checked out this final match. I couldn't see much of a light in him and having fun and doing what he does. This is a job, and then he did do a couple of call-outs to be like, all right, this is my last time doing it. Like, I didn't like that. Like, this is the last time, you better do it one last time because it's the last one. I don't like that. He did that for like a bunch of spots, especially the five knuckle shuffle one. But like I said before, uh Gunther's getting offense. He's I was about to say as uh I can't remember his name, um, Stuart and uh New Japan. He is inserted, he is, he is inserted the key in the hole. It's like that shit was pause. But uh Gunther is getting his offense in, he's doing his thing. Cena is just getting his ass kicked until there's a pivotal moment where Gunther says, Hey, I'm gonna get some still steps, I'm gonna bring it by the announcement table. I'm gonna put Cena through that table. Now, note Cena's outside the ring, Gunther's outside the ring. The ref is not even fucking counting, it's not even counting. Not even counting. And I don't know if it's because, oh, it's Cena, I gotta be more leaning on this match. No, you're not fucking counting, bro. Count the match, do what you're supposed to do. I'm a little nitpicky. I'm sorry, alright. But as the rules are in wrestling, and as a wrestling fan, if you set up the prop, bitch, you're going through it. So Gunther gets Cena in there. He's getting ready to power bomb, but Cena reverses, Cena AA's Gunther through the announcement table. Okay, some life is now back in the match. Cena's now getting the offense. And it felt like Cena would get offense, and then Gunther would shut it down immediately. Gain offense, shut it down immediately. And me and Swag have already made the well, Swag has made the notion that the AA is no more than a transitional move. Because how do you hit a man with an AA on the announcement table, going by the laws of physics in wrestling? Being put through a table does double damage. Okay. Gets in the ring, tries to get a pin, and gets a two-count. Even gets to a point where Gunther sets himself up for an avalanche AA. Which that also supposed to mean, oh, it's elevated? Double damage. And you telling me he still kicked out? Then hits him with another AA. Gunther kicks out again. But here's the difference between this kick out. Gunther locks in a rare naked choke. Now, I didn't mention this. But then there's a point in the match where Gunther is locking Cena in a rare naked choke, which what feels like is 10 fucking minutes, bro. The energy picks up. It's live. Cena just did his final five-knuckle shuffle and it was reversed. By the way, how you gonna do a how you gonna do another five-knuckle shuffle and it gets reversed? I don't know. It's supposed to be the final one. Anyway, every time Cena makes offense, it gets shut down. And again, he's finally in this rare naked choke. And the rare naked choke is about a 10-minute long cycle of Cena fighting, getting himself back up, breaking out of it, getting put back in it, fighting, fighting, gets up, breaks out of it, gets put back in it again, and to the point where the referee even goes back to the old 90s trope, which you don't see it nowadays. You see somebody pass out from a chokehold, they they call the bell. But back in the day, they used to do this thing is the person out, they'll grab the arm, let it drop. Grab the arm, let it drop. And that's the third time. Cena even pulls this up, pulls up the logo and everything, or the sign. And so that point, the wrestling fan who's there to see Cena win, by the way, because we wanted to see Cena win. He breaks out only to be put back, he's getting ready to be put back into it. And Gunther goes from elbow, elbow, elbow, elbow, locks in the rare naked again. And Cena looks like he's fighting. He looks like he's fighting. Only to smile and simply go taps out. Little golf man clap, by the way. Just I'm done, partner. And you can hear the gasp through the entire arena. I even was at home, I'm I'm watching it with my wife, and my wife was like, What the fuck? I'm like, what the fuck?

SPEAKER_00:

How do you end this match like that?

SPEAKER_01:

And the the apparently the goal in mind was Cena has not tapped out of from a submission in 20 years. If he has lost from a submission, is from being passed out or blacked out, and you finally have the moment from the man who never gave up to him finally giving up. In this moment, from my personal opinion, I wanted to turn the TV off. I was infuriated, I was upset in the moment. Because if anything, if you are going to do the the the finish, it needs to be in a way where the audience feels the heartbreak of it happening. Like if Gunther hits the powerbomb after Cena, he he like say if Cena was trying to hit the AA, but he just has no energy left. He's he's still fighting. He has no energy left. He's trying, he's trying. And then somehow Gunther just hits him with the offense, he hits it with a clothesline, he hits him with his signature, and then finally hits the powerbomb, the boom, and then it's just one, two, three. You get the shock, I believe, the shock reveal similar to how Undertaker lost the streak. Because when you look at that audience from when he tapped out, the audience was at awe because it was like, What the fuck? Are you stupid?

SPEAKER_00:

How are you gonna have Cena lose like this?

SPEAKER_01:

And again, Cena was doing what was right for the business. Hunter even said it himself, Paul Paul Levesque said it himself, and when he made the statement later on in the post uh postmedia scrum, well, not postmedia scrum, it was just after, but it was post-show. He stated that Cena wanted to do what was right for the business because he's a big advocate of doing by the book in the business, right? And he was like, hey, if you're gonna do this, he's gonna go out and make sure the talent that he's going against is going to take the win. He gets pinned, he gets out of here. Okay. How about Taker? All right, Taker beat the hell out of AJ Styles, technically killed AJ Styles, and that was supposed to be his final match. He won that. Sting! Sting won his match, made the talent still look good. AJ still looks good. And then now you got the ace. The ace is gonna go over or go against Okada. And I think Okada's winning that. That one Okada, I think he's winning that. I don't think Ace is winning that. His knees ain't ready for that. But I do understand in the business that you're supposed to give back to the business by making a better talent, the future, do that similar thing. It's taking the win, elevating them, and doing right by that. That is that is technically the way. That is technically the way. But to me, and I think every fan that was watching this, we didn't want Cena to be one of those to do that shit. We wanted Cena to hit that last AA. Get the one, two, three. The audience is excited. It's a go-home feel, and everybody can be happy. And then everybody can say, thank you, Cena. Thank you, Cena. Because it's that one last time you get to see Super Cena. It's the last time you got to see Super Cena. Everybody, everybody that came to that event, I believe, wore John Cena some form of John Cena merch. There wasn't any John Cena merch that was not in that build, I don't think. As in the audience. Even even green shirt guy wore the neon green John Cena shirt. He even was in character. So everybody was there to see John Cena win. At least give us that. If you're gonna do anything, give us that. But no, he gave us a moment where Gunther makes him tap out. And by the way, Gunther is apparently getting so much heat for this. They apparently almost caused a riot. See uh the uh Gunther had to be escorted out by security to his vehicle almost like it was the territorial days, it was crazy. Social media is going insane about it. People disliking the actual match video has over 20,000 like dislikes currently, and while Jey Uso still earns the most disliked video currently, I believe, in WWE history, I think he is the most disliked one. This is definitely gonna be a small contender for the most dislike. Because for the casual wrestling fan who may have not, well, for the casual fan that was able to watch this, probably hit dislike. The current wrestling fan, the person in the IWC who is also watching this, definitely click that. But now, say you get some people who didn't even know Cena's final match happened, and they just want to see how it ends, and now they get to watch it, and they probably gonna hit that dislike. So it's speculated that John Cena's lost will probably be the most dislike video in WWE history because fans didn't want that. Granted, Cena may have wanted that, but Cena always said this quote to Cody, and Cody said it in the fucking show. Listen to your audience. If you listen to them, you will do no wrong.

SPEAKER_00:

Cena, tell me, am I wrong? You said that to him. Cody said that shit.

SPEAKER_01:

You didn't listen to your audience, even though it was for the business. You didn't listen to your audience. Paul Levesque, he's also the booker. So even if Cena says, yo, actually, I'm just gonna tap out the gun for ah hey Cena. Um I don't think that's a good idea. I think thousands of people have paid thousands of dollars, if not more, to buy that little goofy ass spinner belt that we've just made for you. It's probably$800. All these shirts from every town that we went to, all the like they spent spending a lot of money. And I think we probably should go over just so people can have a good home, good, go, good, good going-away feeling about everything. But no, the finish was so hated that the audience was divided, right? You don't want to boo Cena, but you want to boo what the fuck just happened. And so at some point, the audience is saying bullshit, bullshit, Gunther's already out the ring. It's just Cena there now. And the whole locker room comes out there. And by the way, when the whole locker room comes out there, where the fuck is Randy Orton, bro? Radio are nowhere inside this entire event. Okay. Come on to find out that motherfucker's in Saudi Arabia. Advertising the Royal Rumble. What other advertisement does it need?

SPEAKER_00:

It's the Royal Rumble. You slap that in front of the rest of the family. We're there. Fucking under the what the fuck? Is this John Cena's final match? Your greatest fucking rival. And you're not even there? Fuck is you doing? Fuck is you doing?

SPEAKER_01:

Who booked that? Slap that bitch in the face. Out of all people, you made Randy Horton go to Saudi Arabia while John Cena's final fucking match is happening. Anyway. But they can't boo Cena because it's Cena. You don't want to boo Cena right now. You want to give Cena his praise because you want to thank him. But boy, when Paul Leves got on that rope. Boo. All he heard was boo. All he heard was booze. For the rest of the night. Anything that involved Paul Levesque was raining with booze. Even when he did the post show, it was booze. Then people screaming AEW, which I want to hear Swag's opinion on that one. Motherfucker's saying AEW over WWE is crazy. But it wasn't good. It wasn't good. It was not good. Cena finally takes off his shoes. Somebody said his sketches. So homie took off his shoes. He's wearing this. You can't see me. Socks. Seems very childish, but hey, it's your merch. Takes off his uh wristbands, his armbands. And before he leaves, uh, excuse me, I forgot to mention this. Uh Cody and CM Punk come in the ring and give him both, give him both titles, and he raises them to the audiences so they can get shouts and yes. But what the fuck does that do? You lost your gun. So once you're holding these belts, are you are you doing it because you're the last world champion? What the fuck? What's the point? Maybe the visual, maybe the photo, I don't know. So then as Cena takes off all his gear, outside of his jaggings, which the audience was laughing and saying, Yo, take off the jaggings. Take off the shorts, because he did say he won't be wearing those anymore. So, you know, might as well take off all the gear. Cena goes to the ramp and says, Thank you for allowing me to serve you. And uh he's gone. No speech, no nothing, just a little video package that they made him watch. And that included Vincand in it, by the way. But nothing. No words, no nothing. Cena goes out there, salutes, gets the fuck out of there. Terrible way to end your Fairworal tour. So I wanna say, I'm I'm so mixed for emotions right now. Like I'm I'm frustrated, but you like you want to see that person happy. Does that make sense? You know, Cena. You got done dirty. I think you might need to go get uh Brian Danielson's number. Call Tony Khan and tell him, hey, I need to join just so I can get a better retirement. Because we know Tony Khan will do right because he gave you gave Stane the best retirement in the world. Stain's retirement is the best. It's it's far, it's hands down the best retirement. Before it could have been Ric Flair, but Ric Flair had to fuck it up, go to TNA wrestle, go to this promotion wrestle. He just could not stop wrestling, and he didn't need to. So I low-key feel for Cena. Maybe this was what maybe here's the thing, too, as a wrestling fan. Maybe because we're overreacting, because we it's stuff that we wanted in this situation, but maybe this was stuff that Cena might have been satisfied with. Maybe Cena was satisfied that his final match was with Gunther. Maybe he was satisfied by getting choked out and suddenly smiling, and maybe that's what he wanted. And at the end of the day, for a man who's been giving his body to the industry for 23 years, really wish he could have done two more just so he could get that 25 mark. 25 years of wrestling. You're almost an Undertaker at that point, my nigga. You you was almost there. Almost there, my nigga. And uh you've been giving your body to this industry for 23 years. You technically get you technically deserve the way you want to end your own career. We just as wrestling fans wished so much more for you. We wish you could have had so much fun with it. We wish you could have some of the best storylines. Hell, the the the heel turn, I feel like would have been heel turn of the century if C, if, if uh The Rock was not out, and we got real good explanations why X, Y, and Z happened. So again, before this actual match, uh fans got to say things to Cena via live mic at um events. Unfortunately, I don't have a live mic. I wasn't well, I have a live mic, but I wasn't there when it happened or what never got the chance to. So I feel like I can say my piece after watching this pay-per-view and watching Cena's final match and giving my opinion on how I feel about it. Cena, um, I was a big fan of yours. I'm I'm still a big fan. I I I've been a fan for years. Um man, this is on the spot too. So Cena, I've been a fan of yours for years, and so many times that I rooted for you because yes, you were a Superman to me. Man, you you hustle loyalty, respect, doctor of thugonomics. Just you you were so charismatic that no any person would want to be you, but then there's also this reasons why people want to be with you. You are one of the reasons why I treat people with so much kindness that I do. There are so many stories about you, Cena, as a human being, that I value more than you as a wrestler. You know, I wish I would have the ability to do cool stuff like grant so many make-a-wish uh events for kids and giving back to the talent, just being a beacon of light to people in general. That is the one thing in my life I wish I could do. And if I had your ability, I would love doing it every day too. There was a recent signing where man, you see that line, and Cena is is taking photos and signing for every one of those people. So me talking now, I'm not really talking about Cena as the rest, I'm talking Cena as the human. And and wanting to do right-by people, giving people that sense of care, that sense of time, that that need to make them feel seen when you're the most well-known person in the room, and you come in and treat them as if you already still know them. That's a unique gift to have of care to give to other people. And I've thrived to make sure that my life, in any interaction with a person, I try to treat them as if I've known them for years. And uh have my little catchphrases and stuff like that. But I want to say thank you for being a role model for positivity, a role model for the moniker, hustle, loyalty, respect. Because, yes, as a wrestler, you've done great things. We know that. That's why everybody's calling you the GOAT, all right. But I don't think a lot of people talk about you as a human, and you know, as a human, you are flawed. As a human, you have moments of weakness. As a as a human, you're gonna have moments where you're not the best person in the room. Best person in the world, you're not feeling the best, you're not doing the best, and sometimes you may not make the best decisions, but you always put people first. So see, this is the biggest kind, it's the kind of thing that any person can do. And I want to say thank you for being a role model for that, because I feel like the world needs more of that. We need more people who are willing to do so many charitable acts. But as a wrestling fan, man, Dr. Thuganomus, obviously the best gimmick for me. I used to love your raps, used to love what you do. Super Cena man. While I was the only person in the group that was a super Cena fan, and I used to get picked on, man. I used to get picked on by being your fan. Did I care? No, because Cena won. Cena was overcoming the odds every time. And I was here for it. So thank you for being who you are in the ring. Thank you for being the person I could always look back at a match and say, that's big match, John. Right. I'm definitely gonna be watching some retro matches after this. But off the off the fly, by the way, this is this is off the dome. I I didn't have nothing prepared, so it's just kind of rambly, but thank you for everything you've done in the industry. Couldn't have a better person to do it, and all the things you've done as a human. Also, thank you so much for that. So, guys, what are your thoughts about this pay-per-view? I mean, we had a false finish, we got a new up and come and winning, and we have the tag team champions winning, and we have Cena losing via tap out. Please let me know in the comments how did you feel about Gunther winning? How did you feel about this pay-per-view? How did you feel about John Cena's final match? I would love to hear Swag's opinions, and I know when he's back next week, he's gonna give his opinion on the whole John Cena retirement tour as well. And I know it's gonna be a bar burner as well, but man, it's finally over. We just all watched John Cena's final match. And where do we go from here? Does Gunther go back on Raw Monday and brag about it and get the heel heat that Dominic Mysterio has? Who knows? But definitely right now, Gunther is probably the most disliked person in wrestling right now. And not like as a human, but as a character. Like everybody's hating on him right now. So, um, again, because Swag Switch is not here. Like I said, before next week, we'll have him here, and hopefully, we'll have uh one of our episodes recorded soon as we're gonna go over the archetypes. I like to say archetypes of wrestling. Okay. So again, let me know what your thoughts about the pay-per-view. How did you feel about John Cena's match? Please let me know in the comments, and also as well, if you enjoy the content, please choke slam the like button and tombstone the uh subscribe button. As this is the demon that's always leaving your girl screaming, the Masaku. And remember that the ring is sacred. The questions are real. The destruction is guaranteed till next time.